Through Another's Eyes
by Julie Ann Pope
Summary: Gordon makes a discovery when he returns home after six months away.


**Author's Notes:** For ncruuk who gave me this muse-tickling prompt in the first place.

* * *

Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart slammed the outside door of his mother's house behind him and stood dripping wet in the porch. His jeans were stuck to his legs in a heavy, wet mass of material and he could feel the squelching of his sodden socks in his shoes. _What a time to find out there was a hole in my trainers_ , he mused sardonically. The rain water ran off his mackintosh in rivulets and an ever-increasing puddle grew out from where he stood on the tiles.

Gordon opened the front door with his key and pushed it wide open with a shove. He remained glued to his spot in the porch and threw his luggage into the hallway. He then peeled off the waterproof jacket, his jumper and considered what to do with his jeans. The porch was built from double-glazed glass panels but the lower half was opaque, so he decided to chance it and peeled off his jeans too, taking his squelchy trainers and socks off in the process.

He left his damp clothes in a crumpled heap in the porch and padded barefoot through to the hallway. The heating was off and he shivered, not surprising as he was only dressed in his pants, so he skipped upstairs to his room in search of a dressing gown. He hadn't lived at home for a couple of years now, but his mum had been adamant that the bedroom was still his for as long as he needed it. And it had been useful for occasions when he visited old friends and stayed over a few nights. His mum had always made sure he had clean clothes and linen in the cupboard should he want it.

Bathrobe located, Gordy wrapped it tightly around himself and turned the thermostat on. His mum had explained that there was little point in putting it on during the day when she was usually at work until very late at night. He knew that her assistant had wired the heating up to the internet, so she could control it from her office before she left. It would take a while for the house to heat up sufficiently so Gordy decided that a shower was in order first. It had been a long flight and he could do with freshening up and ironing out the cricks in his neck and legs with a soothing hot shower anyway. He rooted around in his room for some shower gel, shampoo and some deodorant and padded into the bathroom. He turned on the shower and quickly used the loo while he waited for it to warm up.

The first thing Gordy noticed after he'd stepped out of the shower and was drying himself off, was the fact that there were two toothbrushes by the bathroom sink and two different kinds of toothpaste; the one he was used to seeing and an altogether different brand. He then reached into the medicine cabinet to find some cotton buds in order to clean the wax out of his ears and found a Salbutamol inhaler in its cardboard packaging. There was very clearly a prescription sticker on it and he caught the address of a local pharmacy. He was in two minds whether to take it out of the cupboard and read the label properly, but thought that was perhaps prying too far into his mother's business. Although, he was a little concerned if she had been unwell and hadn't told him. He'd had asthma as a child but he appeared to have grown out of it now. Logically it made sense if his mum might also be susceptible to the condition, especially as she lived in Central London with all the air pollution a big city like it generated.

Gordon finished pottering around in the bathroom and went back to his bedroom to find some comfortable tracksuit bottoms and a polo shirt. He was fortunate to have grown from a podgy kid into a reasonably tall, lanky bloke and actually found it quite difficult to put on weight. Food wasn't something he was particularly bothered about, he was a 'grab and go' sort of person; always something better to be doing than cooking or eating a sensible meal. He'd rather be playing sport or climbing, which was incidentally what he'd just come back from doing. Gordy had spent six months on a climbing adventure traversing numerous Greek islands with a group of other climbers. It had been part of a challenge to navigate all the routes on this particular cluster of islands. His mum had been surprisingly okay about it and even though she worried about him falling and breaking something, she had conceded that she threw herself in the path of danger more frequently than he perhaps realised and that she would be a hypocrite if she stopped him from going. After all, he was a grown man now, what right did she have to control or influence his activities or desires?

Gordy was a sensitive lad and was always quick to acknowledge what a great relationship he had with his mum. It had been the two of them alone for quite some time and he appreciated how difficult that must have been for her. She had a 'hands off' approach and trusted him to come to her for advice or tell her what was going on in his life, in his own time and in his own way. Although, there were times when she did nag him for not keeping in touch as often as she would have liked or for not eating properly but he was grateful that she cared.

Gordy's stomach rumbled and he jogged down the stairs, through the living room and into the kitchen as quick as a flash. He wasn't fussed about food until he was ravenous, and then would raid the cupboards to see if there was anything he could wolf down to satisfy his hunger. He opened the cupboard above the sink, knowing that it would contain all the pasta-type foodstuffs and quickly happened upon a large pot noodle; his favourite flavour and one of four tubs his mum must have put in there just for him. He was just about to shut the cupboard door when he noticed some more unusual items that he hadn't remembered seeing in his mum's cupboard before. He reached inside and pulled out a couple of packets; ' _Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Wheat Free_ ' the label said in big, bold purple letters. It was the same supermarket brand that he was used to seeing, just not the 'special diet' range. It was odd because as far as he knew, his mum would pretty much eat anything that was put in front of her. His stomach rumbled again and he shook his head free from the thoughts; he had a kettle to boil and some highly processed fast food to re-hydrate and eat as quickly as he could. Boiling the kettle would also be useful for his next port of call; a very long overdue, proper cup of tea!

The kettle clicked off as soon as the water had boiled and Gordy poured it into the plastic pot up to the recommended fill line. He let it bubble away for a few moments and got himself a mug and a teabag then filled the mug with the remaining boiled water. Gordy then went to the fridge in search of some milk but was caught off guard when he found only soya milk in the fridge door. He scrunched his nose up in distaste and promptly shut the fridge, which caused a piece of paper to come away from being held tentatively in place with a magnet. Gordy bent down to pick up the piece of paper from the tiled floor and read it out of curiosity. It was a prescription for two Salbutamol inhalers; a blue reliever and a brown preventative. The prescription was made out to a Miss P Osgood at this address and then a couple of things began to fall into place for him, well sort of anyway. He was sure that Osgood was the name of his mum's assistant or at the very least the Scientific Adviser who had worked with his grandfather back in the day. It was an unusual name so one that he was unlikely to have forgotten. Perhaps she had been staying with his mum for a while? For what reason he couldn't quite fathom but if they worked together and her own living arrangements were untenable, then perhaps his mum had offered her somewhere to stay in the interim? It didn't bother him, he no longer officially lived there and she did have three bedrooms so there was plenty of space for a guest. Gordy used a fork to stir the reconstituted noodles, added the sachet of soy sauce and stirred it again before mooching off into the living room and settling in front of the television for a while.

He'd been relaxing for an hour or more when he thought that he ought to tidy up his mess before his mum got home. Of course, he knew she'd be delighted to see him but in the next breath she'd castigate him for leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. He'd rather not argue on his first night back in over six months, so did his duty and picked up the wet clothes from the porch and dumped them in the washing machine. He then hauled his luggage up to his room and began to unpack, well at least the dirty clothes so his mum could wash them before he went back to his own flat! He wasn't silly and planned to take full advantage of his mother's mothering while he could.

Once he'd sorted out his clothes he thought to get his old video game set from the shelves in the spare room and hook it up to the back of the television. He had put his tablet computer on charge but there was nothing quite like holding a control pad in your hands and changing the cartridge if you wanted to play a different game. He walked into the neutrally decorated room and found what he was looking for immediately. However, just as he was pulling the box down from the shelf he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, that there wasn't a spare bed made up for his mum's guest. In fact, it still had his old desk set up and the swivel chair from when he had been studying for his A-Levels. The old PC was stacked, unplugged in the corner and a load of his old board games sat on the desk instead. The room quite obviously hadn't been touched since he'd last been there and then some.

This was all starting to feel rather odd but Gordon had a strange hunch so made his way to his mum's bedroom next. Upon initial inspection, nothing seemed out of place and just as he expected the room to look. However, Gordy began to look a little closer, feeling rather guilty at the obvious invasion of his mother's privacy but oddly curious and full of adrenaline at the same time. The first clue was the two separate sets of nightwear folded up at the foot of the bed. Now, his mum could have forgotten to put her washing away or taken out a fresh set for that evening, but coupled with everything else he'd seen, it was beginning to paint a very interesting picture. There were two spectacle cases on the bedside cabinets on either side of the bed and two half-filled glasses of water beside them. He opened the wardrobe doors and saw some familiar items of his mum's clothing; suits and shirts that he recognised but then he also spotted some shirts, jackets and trousers that were most definitely not his mother's style! Gordy then looked at the bottom of the wardrobe; a selection of his mum's high heeled shoes sat side by side with some comfortable looking boots and converse trainers - most definitely not his mum's either! He shut the wardrobe and sat heavily on the bed deep in thought.

He shouldn't really have been surprised in some respects. The last time they'd spoken properly, just before he'd left for Greece, was over a really nice dinner in town. They'd had a bit of a mother-son heart to heart and she had confessed that she'd been seeing someone romantically for a few months. Gordy could tell that she'd been quite nervous to tell him but he'd been completely supportive and her nerves had settled somewhat. But what he couldn't understand was why she hadn't felt able to tell him then that she'd been seeing a woman? And that the person was someone she worked with?

Gordon tried to think back over the years and find some sort of a clue that he'd missed somewhere along the way. His mum had always been very focused on her work and seemed to have had little time for anything else besides looking after him. He couldn't believe that they'd not had a conversation about relationships where this hadn't come up? She'd certainly never introduced him to anyone special but he hadn't been naive enough to think, especially when he'd become an adult, that she didn't have the need for relationships. Perhaps he should have thought about it more? If he had have done then he'd perhaps have thought to ask her directly? He was actually beginning to feel quite guilty for not knowing something so vital about his own mother. No wonder she'd been so good at giving him advice about girls!

And just while he was thinking about that, he realised that he needed to make it clear to her that there was absolutely no problem with her seeing a woman. If they ever got around to talking about it that was. Although, it did feel a bit strange to think about it that way as he'd never really considered it before. Not in terms of his mother but just in general. He knew lesbians existed, there had even been a few girls at school who had relationships with other girls, it was just that he hadn't really thought about it properly before, just accepted that it was what it was and moved on. If his mum _was_ a lesbian that was, perhaps she was bisexual? That was also possible he supposed, although he understood even less about that. Gordon decided to stop thinking about it too much as he was getting himself even more confused.

* * *

Kate opened the porch door and stopped in her tracks when she noticed it was already unlocked. Osgood looked at her curiously, understanding that something wasn't quite right.

"What's wrong?"

"It's already unlocked." Kate couldn't see any other lights on in the house and she began to grow worried. "I can deal with alien's invading the planet, time-travelling Time Lords and yet I'm reduced to a quivering wreck at the thought of catching a burglar in my house!" Kate whispered dryly through gritted teeth and Osgood turned her around to face her.

"Do you want me to go first?" Oddly, Osgood didn't feel the same sort of fear; some sort of protective instinct had flared up inside of her at the thought of Kate being scared. She was prepared to do whatever it took to ease her girlfriend's worries. And equally oddly, Kate immediately agreed with the nod of her head and stepped aside for Osgood to go ahead of her. She pushed open the equally unlocked front door and cautiously stepped into the hallway. She could vaguely make out the flickering translucent light coming from the living room and also noticed that it was rather warm in the house. Electronic sounding music came floating to her ears and if Osgood wasn't mistaken…. She turned back to Kate who was now standing in the hallway, several feet behind her. "Kate, your son doesn't happen to still have his key does he?" Kate's eyebrows knitted in confusion for a split second and then recognition dawned on her face. Osgood saw the clear delight in her expression and grinned in spite of how ridiculous she felt. Kate walked straight past her and into the unlit living room to find Gordon waving his arms erratically in time with the movements of the pixelated characters on screen.

"Gordy!" She exclaimed in delight and the young man jumped out of his skin in surprise. He'd been so engrossed in his game that he hadn't heard her come in.

"Mum!" She flicked the switch on the wall and suddenly the room was flooded in bright light. Gordon had to blink several times to clear his vision from the shock.

"How.. When did you get back?" Osgood bid a discreet retreat to the kitchen and put the kettle on, she had a feeling they were going to need plenty of tea in a short while.

"Around lunchtime, I wanted to surprise you."

"You certainly did that! I thought you were a burglar." Kate put her hand up to her chest and monitored her gradually falling heart rate, emphasising her fright in the process.

"Sorry, I should have thought it through better." _In more ways than one_ , but Gordon knew he'd get onto that subject later.

"No, no. I'm so pleased to have you back - and in one piece! Come on, aren't you going to give your dear old mum a hug?" Gordy put the controller on the floor, scrambled to his feet and enveloped Kate into a very tight hug. He was a clear foot taller than her, probably more, but he was still her little boy. Kate held on for all she was worth, there hadn't been a day gone by in the previous six months where she hadn't worried about what he was up to or if he was alright. She was so relieved to have him home again. Kate placed a big, wet sloppy kiss to his cheek and then peppered his face with smaller ones. Gordon eventually squirmed and wriggled so much that she had to let him go, but at least he knew that he'd been missed.

In their momentary silence they both heard Osgood clattering about in the kitchen and then looked at each other sharply. Gordy had a raised eyebrow, challenging his mother to explain; already suspecting it was this mysterious other woman and that they must have come home together. Kate's face was an absolute picture; drained of all colour and she was doing a pretty good impression of a fish. The lie that was on the tip of her tongue fell out of her mouth and internally she cringed at her own words. "Oh, I should have mentioned, I've brought a colleague home with me. She's er… staying here for a little while, as a temporary measure." Gordon couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that she hadn't the courage to tell him the truth. However, he realised that it was only a question of time seeing as the spare room wasn't actually set up for a guest!

"Can I meet her?" Gordy asked curiously.

"Of course, come through." Kate led Gordon through to the kitchen and saw that Osgood had been very busy by making some tea and had also started to get the dinner ready too. The younger woman stopped and looked up from what she was doing. She hoped she had a nice friendly smile on her face and didn't look as ridiculously nervous as she felt. She was just about to be introduced to her girlfriend's son for the first time and everything hinged on how well this went. "Osgood, this is Gordon. Gordon, this is my… err… temporary house mate and colleague, Osgood." Kate knew that she was being an idiot but for some reason perpetuated the lie. Osgood felt the blow like a punch to her stomach but refused to react negatively in front of Gordon. She was still keen to make a good first impression after all. She held out her hand tentatively and stepped forward to shake Gordy's own outstretched one. Curiously he rolled his eyes at her and gave her a funny look that she couldn't quite decipher.

"Hello. I've made some tea if you'd like some?" Gordon then scrunched up his face as he'd done so earlier and shook his head.

"Unless you've got something other than soya, I think I'll pass."

"Sorry, there's some skimmed milk in the freezer. I'll get it out to defrost now. Osgood has allergies so we thought it'd be easier just to share the same milk." Kate had interrupted the moment to offer an explanation to her son. Gordy smirked to himself ' _and the rest_ _'_ he thought humorously. He sat himself at the table and Osgood poured the tea from the teapot into three mugs. She handed one to Gordon and then added a splash of the soya milk to the other two. Kate had finished sorting out the milk for Gordon and sat down beside him, he'd not be able to use it until the next morning but at least it would be defrosted in time for breakfast. The atmosphere was a little awkward to say the least; Osgood was still inwardly fuming over the lack of acknowledgement of her place in Kate's life, Kate was indecisive about how she was going to approach things with Gordon, and Gordon just wanted to tell his mum it was alright and start to get to know Osgood better.

Osgood had gone back over to the hob to check on the dinner and had taken her tea with her. However, Kate's words reverberated in her head; 'temporary house-mate' and 'colleague.' She could understand it at work Kate _was_ the boss after all; although those who had half a brain cell in their head could have worked it out for themselves. They weren't overt about their relationship but they didn't bother to hide it either. That had seemed to work well so far but why, when it mattered, did Kate not have the same attitude? Osgood wasn't the walkover some people thought she appeared to be, she was a strong woman in her own right and fought for the things she believed in. She wasn't about to let Kate make her feel invisible and so small as to make her feel that she didn't matter. She was just caught up in a cycle of feeling hurt and angry and knew that she needed a bit of time to herself before she caused a scene. Osgood discreetly switched the oven to low and turned off the pots of vegetables boiling on the hob. She could already feel the sting of tears and pinched the bridge of her nose, pushing up her glasses in the process, to quell them. But she couldn't stop the bubbling up of more tears and walked out of the kitchen quickly but with as much dignity as she could muster.

Kate and Gordon could only watch as she dashed past them without a word. Kate knew then that she'd made a huge mistake and swallowed down the lump in her throat. She was torn between wanting to rush after Osgood and explain, even though she didn't really understand it herself, and staying with Gordon as though there was nothing going on. After a few moments of awkward silence and both mother and son drinking their tea, Gordon gave Kate a gentle elbow in her side.

"Go after her mum." She did a double take and looked at him questioningly but didn't have the time or inclination to think any more of it. She nodded and followed Osgood upstairs to their room. Kate walked in quietly and saw the younger woman mopping her face with a tissue after an obvious bought of crying. Kate felt absolutely terrible then, she'd never wanted to be someone who made their partner feel sad.

"I'm so sorry… I didn't mean…" Kate sat on the edge of the bed and watched as Osgood blew her nose and turned to face her. Her eyes were red and puffy and it broke Kate's heart.

"Yes you did. Do you know how that makes me feel? I'm not going to stay somewhere where I'm reduced to being the lodger." Osgood started to take her clothes out of drawers and piled them up on the bed next to Kate.

"Stop, please. I don't want you to go, let's talk about this, please?" Kate reached a hand out to stop Osgood from packing any more clothes. The younger woman turned to face her reluctantly but found it difficult to meet her eyes.

"Why Kate? Just tell me why you couldn't tell your son that I'm your partner?"

"I'm scared." Kate sounded it too, so small and unsure. It was strange for Osgood to witness; this was the woman who had faced Autons, Cybermen and rogue Time Lords without so much as a ruffled feather.

"Of what?"

"That he'll reject me, won't feel comfortable staying here any longer and then I'll lose him." Gordon was the only family she had left in this world and they had such a close bond she knew it would be like losing her right arm.

"Why would you think that? I know you; you'd have brought him up to know lots of different and interesting people in his life."

"I don't know why I think it, but it's a fear I have nonetheless. We've never really talked about my past relationships in any great detail; this will come as a bit of a surprise to him. And I don't want to lose you either." Osgood couldn't believe that Kate had left it so long to open up to her son about herself.

"You won't lose me but I refuse to pretend Kate, I'm too old to be playing those sorts of games. I'll stay with my sister for a few days until Gordon's gone back to his own place." The stricken look on Kate's face almost made her change her mind but Osgood knew that she had to follow through on her decision for her own sake if nothing else.

"Please don't, I can't bear to think of you not being here." They'd been living together properly for nearly six months and until now, it had been a very smooth transition. Kate had been surprised at how comfortable they both were with the arrangement, how quickly they had fallen into a routine.

"Then you need to speak to Gordon, tell him the truth about us."

"Gordon already knows." A deep, male voice penetrated the atmosphere and both women jumped in surprise. Gordon was standing in the open doorway with his arms folded across his chest in a manner quite spookily reminiscent of his mother's.

"Gordy!" Kate exclaimed in surprise.

"I heard you two rowing and thought I'd come up to save you the bother." At Kate's shocked look he continued, "I _know_ Mum; I've been home for hours, do you think I wouldn't have noticed?" Osgood began to feel uncomfortable and like she was intruding on a private moment. The trouble was she was trapped by Kate and Gordon and couldn't have left the room discreetly, even if she had have wanted to.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want you to find out like this." Kate's emotions were all over the place and she felt the beginnings of a headache coming on.

"You told me you had been seeing someone, just not who. I don't need to know anything, only that you're happy?" Kate marvelled at the young man stood before her, he had more courage to confront her than she did to admit the truth.

"I am… we are…. very much so." Kate looked at Osgood and caught her eye. Osgood smiled at her and nodded her head, acknowledging that they were moving forward.

"Then I'm okay with it." Gordon said is nonchalantly, like it was no big deal and hoped it had come across to his mum that way.

"We will talk about it properly Gordy, I want to explain." There was so much to talk to him about, so many wasted years of not being fully herself.

"That's fine, just not now okay? At least not until after dinner, I'm starving!"

"Now who does that remind you of?" Osgood waggled her eyebrows at Kate who gasped in mock offence. "I don't understand how you're so slim, you're always bloody hungry!" All three chuckled knowing it was completely true, Kate ate like a gannet - at least when she had time to that was.

"I'll err… wait downstairs for you both?" Gordon suggested helpfully and left the room before heading back downstairs.

"Are we okay?" Kate asked Osgood timidly.

"For now, but I'm still upset with you. We're equals in this partnership Kate, I won't be treated like I don't matter. You're lucky Gordon came up when he did, otherwise I'd have been long gone." It would have taken a lot for Osgood to have followed through with her threat but she would have done it nonetheless.

"I accept that. I really am sorry you know. I was scared and it was a knee-jerk reaction but I shouldn't have dismissed you like that." Kate looked as sorry as she felt and the thought of Osgood walking out had genuinely terrified her. How things had changed for her over the years!

"Well, you can make it up to me later. I seem to recall that someone was too tired last night to even the score…" Osgood's tone had turned distinctly suggestive and Kate coughed realising that the bedroom door was still open.

"But Gordy's room is right next door!" She whispered

"Well, you'll just have to try to be quieter then. That ought to be fun!"


End file.
